What's in a name? A lot, if it's for a building that will house hundreds of Royal City students for years to come.
John Robson Middle School and Qayqayt Elementary are the monikers a committee is proposing the New Westminster board of education call two new schools in New Westminster.
"Wonderful," Qayqayt Chief Rhonda Larrabee said when she heard the committee's name recommendation for the new elementary school being built on the former St. Mary's Hospital site.
Larrabee's mother, Marie Joseph, was born at St. Mary's Hospital, and she wanted the new elementary school to be named after her mom. Still, she was pleased with the Qayqayt name and its acknowledgment of the history of First Nations people in the area.
"There were 400 First Nations people in the village way back in the mid-1800s before Europeans came and before small pox came," she said. "It's quite a history that was lost."
The Qayqayt First Nation (pronounced Kee-Kite), also known as the New Westminster Indian Band, has 12 registered members, Larrabee said. The name roughly translates into "resting place."
The school naming committee, made up of parents, two trustees and school staff, unanimously endorsed the suggested names, trustee and committee chair Lisa Graham said.
"It was a name that felt right," said Graham. "It honours a spirit, a culture, the kind of principles our schools and current culture embrace."
Trustee David Phelan was also on the committee and said they reviewed about 25 online submissions from the public. They went with the Qayqayt name because it recognizes history from an aboriginal perspective.
"We often times look at history from the point of view of the people who settled here and sometimes forget about the original inhabitants," Phelan said.
The rationale for keeping Robson was the students, parents and staff have a strong community connection to the name, Phelan said.
John Robson - a former premier - is a somewhat controversial figure. He may have had some racist attitudes, Phelan said, adding that's something the board might have to discuss.
But Robson - Vancouver's famed shopping strip was also named after him - was an advocate for female suffrage, calling for women to have the right to vote in the 1870s, he said.
"Those are going to come up as issues when we discuss it at the board meeting," Phelan said.
The committee's recommendations will go to the board, and the board will opt to either accept the recommendations or approve a different name.
"It's at the will of the board," Graham said.
The name selection process was an important first step before the district holds its ground-breaking ceremony on the new elementary school site, which is expected to take place this spring.
The New Westminster school district recently signed a contract with the developer, Yellowridge Design Build Ltd., and now has the confirmation of design plans and the city-approved development permit to move forward with the long-awaited school on the former St. Mary's Hospital site, which will house a new elementary school. A middle school will be built on the Robson site, once the new elementary school is constructed.
The new elementary school is scheduled to be open for classes by September 2014, according to the school district.
